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December Sunshine

It still feels like Winter with our morning temperatures in the 30s and 40s, cold enough for frost or patchy ice in our interior valleys however by day you should be able to notice some warmer weather into early next week.High pressure will strengthen into Monday boosting most of our temps into the low to mid 60s by the end of the weekend and closer to some 70s near Santa Cruz and the South Bay for Monday.Cooling and more clouds will return by midweek, followed by another round of chilly weather for the second half of the week as the high recenters itself just slightly more to our west. This will allow a couple of colder systems to move down from British Columbia down into Northern California. This will limit how much moisture these systems will have to work with so while showers are not expected locally (though likely over the northern mountains and Sierra) we will see our highs drop back into the 50s approaching next weekend with blustery winds out of the north. This may set us up for more freezing temps again by next weekend as well. In the meantime, enjoy the daytime warmer weather into next week! (Published Saturday, Dec. 14, 2013)

A wood-burning ban in the Bay Area has been issued for the eighth-straight day. A "Winter Spare the Air" alert has been issued for Sunday.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued the alert - its 12th since the district's Winter Spare the Air season began Nov. 1 - because of an ongoing cold weather pattern that is trapping pollution close to the ground.

On Winter Spare the Air days, wood burning is banned both indoors and outdoors, with exemptions for homes where wood burning is the sole heat source, according to the air district.

Wood smoke is the major source of air pollution in the Bay Area during the winter and is especially harmful to children, the elderly and those with respiratory conditions, district officials said.

First-time violators of the ban can take a wood smoke awareness class or pay a $100 ticket. Subsequent violations will result in increasing fines.

"This has been a challenging week for air quality with a high pressure system in place that has not allowed fine particulate pollution to disperse," said Jack Broadbent, executive officer of the Air District. "We are asking for the public's continued cooperation to protect the health of Bay Area residents and reduce pollution from wood burning."

The daily burn status in the Bay Area can be found online at www.baaqmd.gov or www.sparetheair.org, by calling (877) 4-NO-BURN or by signing up for Spare the Air iPhone or Android apps.

Jeff's Weekend Forecast & Near Records Soon

This Weekend is expected to feature plenty of sunshine with gradual warming. Chief Meteorologist Jeff Ranieri explains how air quality concerns will linger as temperatures push near records within the next 3 days.